A Night Without Stars
by Potter47
Summary: There is a beauty in a night without stars... COMPLETE. Written for Sink into Your Eyes' Dark Autumn challenge. This is in the GinnyLuna category for friendship only.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: _This is Pre-HBP. Please review—and if you do, please remember that when rating, "10" is the highest and "1" is the lowest; on one of the other entries on this challenge, a reviewer thought it was the other way round and ruined a story's rating when they meant to give it top marks. So... yeah. Please review. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

A Night Without Stars  
_ Potter47 _

ONE

The creaking of floorboards was all to be heard that night; the continuous resonance of foot upon wood, pacing back and forth, forth and back.

The hooded figures could not keep still—one by the window, one by the door, one sitting on that ratty old chair, tapping long fingernails upon the splintery arms—and then moving.

The woman in the chair turned her head; sweat was beading at her hairline, on her face, on her neck beneath the hood. A spare dust particle floated _up down left and _right by her eyes, the cold pupils following its journey.

The dust continued away from the woman, floating naively in the airless room. It swerved and swooshed and sidled until, for no particular reason, it decided to come to a rest and fell straight downward upon the dirty-blonde hair of the one hoodless person in the room—a girl, arms and legs bound, arranged awkwardly upon the floor.

The dirty-blonde spoke, then, her odd voice cutting roughly into the silence:

"This is rather painful, you know."

The woman in the chair pulled her wand from nowhere and cast a wordless spell upon the girl that sealed her lips together—the girl's eyes crossed in confusion and surprise, but then settled back into place and drifted closed.

The woman drew the others' attention to her and mouthed to them, "_Silence_."

The others—there were two men, both subordinate to the woman—nodded, and obeyed.

——

Ginny let out a strangely rattling breath from her place by the window of Honeydukes, and she wished that it wasn't so unseasonably warm today—sweat was pouring down her face and neck, and the humidity in the air made the whole shop very stuffy.

Nothing was visible outside of the window—the village itself was covered in a thick fog so that if one were to venture out in it... it would not be difficult to be lost.

The fog had been there since the attack.

Ginny glanced over her shoulder, momentarily abandoning her 'watch' on the outside world, and saw Harry there, pacing back and forth, just as he had been doing ever since... well.

"She'll be OK," said Ginny in a small, somewhat wavering voice that certainly would not convince anyone, let alone Harry. "You know Luna... she probably won't even mind it."

Harry didn't speak, but only continued to pace. Ginny swallowed—her throat was painfully dry today—and she felt a strong urge to pace along with him... perhaps just to hold him tightly and tell him everything would be all right...

...she wished someone could do that for _her _as well.

Ginny shifted her gaze from Harry's face down to his feet, and began to follow them across the wooden floor, _step, step, step_ and then back to where they started. Unbeknownst even to herself, she started to bite her lip in time with his movements, her teeth pressing into the skin as each foot fell to the floor.

"We... them."

Ginny's gaze jumped back up to Harry's face, her teeth biting too hard in surprise, drawing a bit of blood—

He had spoken, but she hadn't heard right.

"What?"

"We should check on them."

"Oh," said Ginny, dabbing the driblets of blood away with her tongue—it tasted like dirt, she thought, from that little taste—"Yeah, I guess."

Looking round the shop, Ginny wished that someone else would be up here by the door, just to be safe... but no one else had made it to Honeydukes—she hoped they'd made it somewhere.

Harry and Ginny walked down to the basement—it was strange to have free run of the place, really, and Ginny didn't want to think about what must have happened to the owners—and found the trapdoor open, as they knew it would be. Down from there, and down the countless steps (it took much longer than they would have liked, leaving the shop empty and all), they found Ron and Hermione—the former was seated upon the bottom step, watching the latter wave her wand round complicatedly.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" said Ginny. "Or are you just conducting a dust symphony?"

"Shh," said Ron in a bored voice, his chin resting on his hand, "she's '_concentrating_.'"

Hermione made a noise of frustration and lowered her wand, shaking her head.

"I _don't _have any idea what I'm doing," she admitted. "I don't have any idea what's keeping the wards up."

Ron stood, stretched a minute, and then leaned against the invisible wall that was keeping them from Hogwarts, crossing his arms and facing the others. "I reckon we should just try our luck in the fog."

"That's what the Death Eaters _want _us to do," said Hermione. "Why else do you think they _conjured _the fog?"

"Block out the sunlight?" suggested Ron. "Maybe Lestrange's a vampire or something, wouldn't put it past her."

"But how are we going to get Luna back?" said Ginny impatiently. "We can't just sit here and wait for the fog to go away, can we? I mean... they'd be gone by then, right?"

"We have to do something," said Harry, "now."

The four of them looked between each other, trying to figure out what that something would be.

——

_Ginny was very tired today, and overwhelmingly happy to return to Gryffindor Tower—Snape had assigned all of the fourth years dreadful essays over the weekend, and Ginny'd been in the library ever since supper, poring over books to help with her essay... or to _attempt _to help with her essay, as it wasn't doing all that much._

_She straightened her bag on her back and slogged on, turning now to the corridor of the Fat Lady—_

_"Let's sleep under the stars tonight," said Luna, and Ginny almost fell over backwards at the suddenness of it—where had Luna come from...?_

_"What?" said Ginny. "Sleep under—what?"_

_"The stars," said Luna again. "Wouldn't it be fun? I've always wanted to do it, and since they won't let us sleep in the Great Hall, I figured we could sneak out to this place on the edge of Hogsmeade—"_

_"Wait, wait," said Ginny, shaking her head, "slow down, Luna. Why do you want to sleep under the stars all of a sudden, exactly?"_

_"I just told you, I've ALWAYS wanted to do it, not just all of a sudden, Ginny, haven't I ever told you?"_

_Ginny shook her head no._

_"I haven't? Oh, that's terrible, what else haven't I told you about? Have I told you—"_

_"Are you feeling all right, Luna?" said Ginny. "I mean, you don't usually talk so fast—"_

_"I'm excited, Ginny, can't you tell? You know, we need to get to know each other better, don't we? I mean... how long ago did we meet? First year, right, that was three years ago, wasn't it? But we don't really even know that much about each other—"_

_"Yes we do—"_

_"No, we don't," said Luna. "What's my favourite ice cream flavour?"_

_"Um..."_

_"Exactly. If you don't know that, you don't know anything about me, and since I don't know _your _favourite ice-cream flavour, I don't know anything about you either—"_

_"It's strawberry."_

_"Mine's cookie dough—good, that's a start. But let's sleep under the stars."_

_Ginny blinked, wondering just how strange a person could get before they were shipped off to St Mungo's. But somehow..._

_"OK, all right," said Ginny, then, and she sounded almost exasperated. "We'll sleep under the stars. But I've got to drop off these books in my dorm—"_

_"That's fine," said Luna, and she was grinning. "I'll block my ears, you know, so I don't hear the password."_

_"Er... right."_

_——_

The four of them—Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione—abandoned the attempt to get through the tunnel, and just as they reached the basement of Honeydukes, they heard the slam of a door above—all four heads snapped upwards.

Harry put a finger to his mouth and mouthed "_Shh_"—the others nodded and obeyed. They took out their wands then, and following Harry, mounted the stairs—

Step, step, step, step—up to the top, and then Harry turned the doorknob, opened the door just a tiny bit—

"AHH! Get away! Stay where you are! Don't move or I'll curse you!"

The four let out a breath of relief, and Harry let the door swing wide—Neville stood before them in the middle of Honeydukes, his wand raised and his arm trembling.

"Harry? Ginny—"

"It's us," said Harry. "You made it—"

"Yeah," said Neville, nodding, and Ginny noticed that he was out of breath. "I actually just was sort of sitting in the middle of that fog for a while and hoping no one would notice—"

Ron half-laughed, and Hermione trod on his foot.

"What?" he said. "It's a funny picture—"

"It is sort of funny, looking back on it," said Neville, but his voice didn't sound very amused. "But it was really pretty horrible out there, and there was a body—"

—there was a collective gasp from the others, and no one breathed a moment—

"—but I think it was a Death Eater, I didn't stop to look."

The breath was let out in a sort of half-relief.

"So you made it through the fog, then?" said Ginny. "You made it here?"

"Well, yeah," said Neville, nodding. "I just sort of went in the general direction I reckoned someplace was, and I remembered that passageway under here—"

"How'd you know about that?" Harry said, almost suspiciously. Neville reddened.

"I heard you lot talking about it once, I just figured I might as well not mention it... actually I don't even remember where it comes out up at the castle, but I know you said Honeydukes—"

"It's all right," said Hermione. "It doesn't matter that you know, since... well, I suppose it's not much of a secret anymore, is it? The Death Eaters know about it too, they must, they put a ward up on it so we can't get to the school."

Neville blinked once, and his face fell completely. "You mean we're still... trapped?"

"Pretty much," said Ginny. "But we've got to find the Death Eaters—"

"WHAT?" said Neville. "Why would—wouldn't it be best just to lie low until they leave?"

"They've got Luna, Neville," said Ginny, and there was a sort of frank emotion in her voice that surprised her, and Neville blinked once again. Ginny added quietly: "..._and they're not leaving_..."

"Oh." She reckoned he was "oh"ing the first part, about them having Luna.

"Hey, hang on a minute," said Harry. "Neville, since you did it once... d'you think you could help us get through the fog? D'you know how far it lasts for, at least?"

"Well... no, I don't know how far it goes, but... well, I could try to help. Nothing to lose, right?" The last words were hardly convincing.

"If we could reach the _end _of the fog," said Hermione thoughtfully, "then we could probably get a better picture of where everything is—and maybe we might be able to see where the Death Eaters have gone."

"But wouldn't they have just left?" said Neville. "I mean, why would they wait around Hogsmeade for us to find them?"

The four others looked at each other, back and forth, but none spoke—almost as though they had a secret.

"Let's go," said Ginny.

——

_Ginny needed... Ginny needed to get away, away from everything, away from... away from Dean, especially, but she didn't feel like admitting that to herself._

_She found herself out on the grounds... standing out in the middle of the path down from the castle to the front gates, and she wondered where she was going. It was getting late out, really, and if she was caught out on the grounds this time of night, she'd probably be get detention till OWLs came round..._

_Then she thought of that place..._

_Looking back over her shoulder a minute, Ginny set off towards Hogsmeade, feeling more than very visible, being the only person out on the grounds... luckily the setting sun was blocked partly by the castle, so that she was not overly illuminated._

_It had been nearly a year since that night, since she and Luna had slept under the stars... they'd talked a long time that night, more than ever before, and it had been then that Luna had confided in Ginny that her favourite colour was orange-red—_not_ red-orange, but orange-red, because there was a difference, although Ginny had yet to see it, all this time later._

_And now as Ginny came upon the spot—the clearing just on the edge of Hogsmeade and the Forest, where there was a wall of tightly-wound trees blocking the view of the village—she wondered why they had never slept out here again, in all this time..._

_Ginny sat down with her back to the town, nearly leaning against the rough barks of the skinny-and-twisty trees, but not quite because that would have been uncomfortable. The wind blew calmingly by her ears, keeping the long red hair out of her face... she closed her eyes and began to clear her mind of everything she could..._

_The wind began to ruffle the fallen leaves on the ground, crinkling them together like a salt shaker, and even though she had not intended to do so, Ginny opened one eye and looked down upon the broken foliage. She saw that someone had made a pile of them to Ginny's left, a large pile about two feet high and four or so across, and that pile was moving now more than any of the other leaves... Ginny wondered how many leaves there were, if there could be such a large pile and still so many more on the ground beside it._

_Opening the other eye, Ginny watched the pile for some time, thinking of the reds and yellows and oranges that made it up... there was something unique about the fall, October especially... something very colourful and yet very dreary at the same time. It probably had something to do with Hallowe'en._

_The wind died down and the leaves rustled some more._

_Ginny blinked._

_The leaves kept twitching._

_Then:_

_"Boo." A figure stood up from the centre of the pile, brushing leaves off herself and speaking in a not-very-SURPRISE! way. "You know, it's rather difficult not to sneeze when you're like that—"_

_"Luna!" said Ginny, and she felt her face quirking into a smile for some reason. "What are you doing here?"_

_"I was playing hide-and-go-seek," said Luna. "It took you forever to find me—"_

_"I wasn't looking—"_

_Luna ignored her and brushed a leaf out of her long, dirty-blonde hair. It fell to the ground listlessly, like a speck of dust._

_"You just need more practice," she assured, nodding. Then Luna's expression changed suddenly, as though she were seeing Ginny differently for the first time. She said: "You don't look very happy."_

_This was strange, because Ginny had had a smile on her face for the first time in a long while. "I don't? Oh... I'm not, not really." Ginny blinked as the words fell from her mouth; they came so very easily, which was amazing, because she had not been able to speak them even to herself._

_"What's wrong? Here, have a nice leaf." Luna handed Ginny a perfect, uncrumpled leaf, holding it out by the stem._

_"It's just... well, everything that's been going on, you know?" No, she didn't. "Well, Dean's been acting all... strange, and stuff. And... and stuff. Things just feel off," concluded Ginny ineloquently._

_"Well, they are," said Luna. "I've been trying to find the on-switch for years, but I haven't managed it yet. It would be nice for everything to go the way we want for once, wouldn't it? But then, we wouldn't be able to appreciate it very well, if nothing ever went wrong."_

_Sometimes, Ginny felt that Luna made great philosophical statements only to contradict herself and prove the point moot. She wasn't quite sure if this was one of those times._

_"Oh, I didn't even notice!" said Luna suddenly, and she tilted her head back farther than it should have been able to go—"Look, the sun's gone and left without letting the stars know its their turn... we won't be able to watch them tonight."_

_Ginny looked up now as well and noticed that Luna was right—there were no stars tonight, the October clouds were too thick and October-y, chilled and frozen like the ground below them._

_Luna laid herself down upon that frozen ground then, and made a sort of pillow for herself out of some leaves. She had an expression of utter peacefulness on her face, as though she were dreaming a good dream, the kind that you don't want to leave._

_Ginny lay down beside her, made her own pillow, and looked up. It was really getting very dark now, and the lights of the village behind the twiny trees were being extinguished one after another... when Ginny looked through those trees, she thought she saw someone standing there, sidling among the twirling branches, but a moment later she was sure she'd imagined it._

_"Let's not wait another year, Ginny," said Luna suddenly, then. "Let's come out here more often. Every week, how about that? We'll make it a tradition—they're not just for Boxing Day, you know—"_

_"All right," said Ginny, nodding as best she could in her horizontal position, and then wondering why she'd bothered nodding when Luna would never have seen it. "A tradition."_

_"Every weekend, starting today and never ever ending, not till we're old and grey."_

_Ginny smiled slightly, thinking that of course it wouldn't last that long—perhaps until the end of their seventh year, maybe... but then she thought, 'Why not try?'_

_"Sure, Luna. Every weekend."_

_There was another movement out of the corner of Ginny's eye, and it was almost like the swirling of a cloak by the trees... but it must have been the wind._

——

It was with more than a little hesitation that Neville finally pushed open the door of Honeydukes and stepped out once more into the fog. He held the door open for Ginny, who stepped out next, and then Harry, Hermione, and finally Ron.

There was a wind now, that seemed to pick up just as Neville's foot met the pavement. It whistled in their ears, the soft hiss of continuous breath.

The wind caught the door in its grasp and swung it out fully, slamming it into the wall of the shop—then the breeze let up a minute and it settled back into place. Just as it came to a close once again, and Neville was about to take a step away from the building, Hermione said:

"Wait!"

The others turned round; Hermione continued, slightly muffled by the wind: "We should all hold hands or something, so we don't get separated."

"Er... right," said Neville, who held his hand out to Ginny, who took it hastily and held one back to Harry, and so on and so forth...

Finally, with a collective breath, Neville raised his foot and took the first step, and Ginny followed, and Harry... _Step step step, _silenced by the wind.

Ginny began to feel her palms grow sweaty, especially the one holding onto Harry's hand... and soon after that, she began to find it hard to think of anything but that hand holding hers, which grew distracting—she nearly tripped over Neville in front of her, and lost her grip on his hand a moment, which could have been disastrous if he hadn't caught hold of her arm again.

"Careful, Ginny."

She nodded and held on tighter.

Walk walk walk, step step step, through the fog of this surreal fairy-Hogsmeade, until suddenly, (and the sound pierced Ginny's ears for the suddenness and the loudness)—

Hermione screamed, and then she was gone; the scream was snuffed out like the light of a candle.

"What happened, what happened?" said Neville anxiously, and Ginny could scarcely hear him, for the wind—

"I think—I think Hermione tripped on something, I lost my grip on her hand... Ron's with her, too—" Harry shouted against the whistling.

"But she can't have gone far—"

There was suddenly a silence that was so very full of the sound of the rattling, whistling wind that Ginny wondered why she'd thought of it as a silence. She could hear nothing around her, could hardly feel Neville's and Harry's hands on her own, for the wind pelted the skin of her wrists so very harshly... Her hands were numb, and so was the rest of her—the three of them were alone. Ron and Hermione were alone. Luna was alone—

Ginny felt so very completely lost in the fog...

"_POINT ME!_"

Ginny's ears perked up like a cat's at the bizarre exclamation—it was Harry's voice, she was sure of that, but it had sounded almost as though the words were supposed to be a _spell_—

And then Ginny felt herself being pulled by the arm she _had_ been _pulling _by, which got her dreadfully out-of-sorts (as though she weren't already). She took a moment in this newfound motion to work out what had happened, step by step, since the scream—

Hermione tripped on something. She lost hold of Harry's arm. She and Ron disappeared—

The exclamation, "_Point me!_," the new tugging... she knew now, _Harry _was pulling her and Neville, instead of Neville pulling her and Harry... it had taken her too long to make sense of that, and she wanted the wind to just _stop _so she could think better...

And then it did.

Ginny was no longer being assaulted by the mighty gusts of air—her ears had been freed of the incessant whistling. What had happened?

Ginny knew, then: Harry had pulled them out of the fog, to the far edge. They had made it, the three of them...

"Are you all right?" said Harry, then, and his face was suddenly in front of Ginny's. She nodded, and looked around.

They were on a sort of hill, just on the edge of the village. She sat down upon the withered, dead-looking grass, and put her head in her hands, soothing her ears with her fingertips.

She wondered where Ron and Hermione were now, but then decided it was best not to try to think of that.

"What was that?" said Neville's voice, and Ginny looked up—he was talking to Harry.

"It was something I learned back in fourth year... I'm an idiot for not thinking of it before; it shows you where north is, it's a compass, basically—"

Ginny got the basic idea of what he was saying and tuned the rest out. She took a few deep breaths, in and out, and remembered quite suddenly that it was very warm today, and she was almost sweating now. She almost laughed at the absurdity of it, for it had been so cold in the fog...

"So now what do we do?" she said, and her voice was much more determined-sounding than she would have expected it to be.

"We keep going, I guess," said Harry, and he held out a hand to Ginny, to help her up off the grass—she took it gratefully, and was surprised to find she didn't need it.

"Let's head up there," said Neville. "Hermione said to look for where the Death Eaters might have gone."

They climbed further up the hill, and further still until they were able to see somewhat over the fog, see the tops of buildings amongst the smoke-like veil.

"I don't see anything," said Neville.

"Me neither," said Harry.

"So what do we do?"

"I guess we have to wait until something shows up. We can't very well just guess where they've gone, after all. So we have to wait."

Ginny swallowed, and sat down once again on the deadened grass... and they watched.

——

_"There is a beauty in a night without stars, isn't there?"_

_Luna lay on her back, arms beneath her head, staring up at the heavens. Ginny sat beside her, huddled to her knees for the cold, her head tipped back to see the night._

_"Yeah, I think so," said Ginny, and Luna elaborated:_

_"It's just... you know, boundless. Amazing. Never-ending nothingness."_

_"Yeah," said Ginny—she felt quite awkward knowing that "Yeah" was the most eloquent thing she could come up with, especially next to Luna, whose ears (as she had herself once observed) were filled with poetic wax._

_"But I wonder what _they_ think?"_

_Ginny looked down at Luna now—the girl's face was contorted in concentration, her pale eyebrows furrowed._

_"What do you mean?" asked Ginny._

_"I mean, I wonder what the stars think on a night like this—a night without stars. Do they think of it as a night without earth? But then, what do they care about earth, really? Are we all that important to them? They could always look at all the other places, all the other planets... it makes you feel quite inferior, doesn't it?"_

_Ginny blinked, for that word—'inferior'—had been right at the top of her mind while Luna spoke, it was the perfect word for that feeling of emptiness she was feeling. And it wasn't all that great a word, really, was it? It was really very common-place... but it was the perfect word._

_Luna's face relaxed once she had spoken her words of inferiority, as though a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. Then her eyes drifted closed a moment, and open, and closed once more, and then:_

_"There's something comforting in closing your eyes and not seeing all that much of a difference. That's probably why we sleep at night, I reckon."_

_Ginny smiled slightly and leaned back now, feeling the frozen ground beneath her back... her head lay beside Luna's and with a sideways glance at her friend, Ginny's eyes closed as well._

_The silence of the night was very comforting as well... and then Luna spoke quite suddenly:_

_"Now that we're not looking," she said (though Ginny didn't know how Luna knew that _she _had closed her eyes), "I wonder if the stars are back? No, don't look. If you do, then they'll go away again... but I bet they _are _back. It's just the sort of trick they'd pull, isn't it?"_

_"Whatever you say, Luna," said Ginny. "Whatever you say."_

_——_

"Hey, Gin," said Harry oddly, and she looked up at him. "Could I talk to you a minute?"

A moment passed, and then: "Sure, of course."

Harry glanced at Neville as though making sure the boy wasn't listening, and then sat down just behind Ginny, and to her left, so he could see the fog over her shoulder.

"You don't seem very well," he said then. "Are you all right? _Really, _I mean?"

There was something in his tone that pleased Ginny, an honest-to-goodness caring she heard... and yet she could not help but lie to him.

"Yes, I'm fine."

He didn't seem to believe her, but he didn't press the subject. Instead, he fell silent and watched the fog once again. Ginny felt somewhat uncomfortable with him over her shoulder, just sitting there, inches away... and she began to bite her lip once again.

She scanned the horizon once again, but there was no sign of the Death Eaters. It occurred to her that it was strange for the Death Eaters to go through all this trouble of luring them without even letting them know where to be lured to.

It was too quiet, now, and Ginny began peeling the skin back from her lip with her teeth, just a little bit... and then she managed it, and it stung in the open air. She couldn't stand another moment of silence, so she started talking.

"It's weird, all this," she said. "I mean, Luna and I... I dunno. I'd probably call her my best friend, but I don't know when that happened. It's just... you can tell her _anything_, you know? And never be worried that she'll tell someone else, that she'll... Luna would _never _tell a secret. She'd tell anything else, of course, even if it was... you know, Snorkacks or something, but she'd never tell a secret. She never did."

Ginny swallowed, and she heard Harry take a breath behind her.

"She'll be OK," said Harry in a small, somewhat wavering voice that somehow... it convinced Ginny, _YES,_ she would be OK.

Ginny wondered who she meant by 'she.'

And then Ginny noticed that she was biting her lip again, and stopped, but started again a moment later and just stopped caring—

Harry put a hand on her shoulder, his touch almost... _poetically hesitant,_ that was what it was, that's what it would be called. Ginny felt something in his touch, perhaps something she'd wanted to feel for a long time, but she couldn't keep her mind on it, her thoughts kept returning to everything that had happened earlier, with the Death Eaters...

Oh, it was all her fault, wasn't it?

  



	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note:_ If you reviewed last chapter... please review again on this one, it makes me feel good. And if you didn't review last chapter... do I really need to say it...? Thanks.

A Night Without Stars  
_ Potter47 _

TWO

_Ginny walked slowly, meanderingly down to Hogsmeade today, because she had no reason to hurry. Most of the school had already gone down, or were at least far ahead of her on the way. Dean had left a long time ago, she had watched him with that upset look on his face that he'd worn since she'd broken up with him yesterday... And now Ginny was alone, but she didn't really mind._

_It was unseasonably warm today—Ginny found herself sweating in her light jumper in the October air. She hoped it would cool down a bit, because she and Luna were going to be sleeping out under the stars again tonight... it wouldn't be right if the ground wasn't frozen and there wasn't a bitterness to the wind. It just wouldn't be the same._

_Ginny stepped on a crinkly-looking leaf on the ground, and it made a satisfying crunch beneath her shoe._

_"That was a good one," said a voice, and Ginny was somehow not surprised to hear it. She didn't bother turning round, because she knew it was Luna. "I hate it when you _think_ it's going to make a nice crunch but it's really just sort of flat and slippery... don't you?"_

_"Hello, Luna," Ginny said, and she smiled slightly at the ground as she walked, her hands in her jumper pockets. Luna quickened her walk slightly to catch up, and then slowed down again._

_"Sometimes, I think that maybe there's somebody in the Ministry that's hired to manufacture the crunchy-looking-leaves-that-aren't-really-crunchy, you know, just to be mean to the general public. He's probably sitting at his workbench right now and expertly crafting them. I wonder how much he gets paid for that?"_

_Ginny noticed that sometimes, by the time Luna had finished speaking, Luna had fully convinced herself that what she was making up off the top of her head was true. It was funny._

_"Too much," said Ginny, playing along. "That money should be going to the Snorkack Rehabilitation Fund..."_

_"Yes, it should," said Luna firmly. "In fact, I'm going to write a letter to the Minister, first thing tomorrow and complain about that—"_

_Ginny grinned again, and brushed a bit of hair behind her ear. The two of them kept walking, and talking about nothing in particular for a long while, until eventually they had reached Hogsmeade and spotted Harry, Ron, and Hermione just outside the Three Broomsticks._

_Ginny and Luna joined the others in the pub for a few butterbeers, and Luna informed Ron that he would look nice with an earring, so he should get his ears pierced. Hermione jokingly agreed with Luna and began pointing out the earrings on passing witches, noting which ones Ron should try. Ginny bit her lip to keep from spewing her butterbeer across the table. Harry was quiet, as though deep in thought._

_Then, suddenly, Harry spoke:_

_"Do you hear that?" His face was very serious, and he spoke with an urgent tone._

_The others—Ginny, Luna, Ron and Hermione—looked at him curiously. "Hear what?" Ron said, his ears still red from the previous topic. It was a good question—the pub was filled with a thousand different noises, there was no way they could have known which Harry meant—_

_"Those voices. I swear, I heard someone say something about kidnapping someone—"_

_Hermione looked alarmed. "What? Who—"_

_"It's probably Cornelius Fudge—" began Luna._

_"Wait, listen!"_

_They did, but they couldn't hear anything. Then, suddenly, Harry's eyes grew wide and he put his hand to his head. "I think it's in my head..."_

_Ron made a face. "That _is _butterbeer you're drinking, right, Harry?"_

_"No, I mean—yes, it is, but... I mean, in my head, like... like Occlumency. Or Legilimency, whatever."_

_A silence fell on the table._

_"But you've never just heard people _talking _before," said Hermione. "You should tell Dumbledore—"_

_Harry looked round the Three Broomsticks, surveying the people around them... Ginny did the same, and—_

_"My God, Bellatrix Lestrange is over by the doorway."_

_She shouldn't have said it out loud, because then suddenly all four of the others abruptly turned to face the door, and Lestrange noticed them. Her wand was drawn in an instant, and there was a flash of light..._

_"Everybody DOWN!"_

The next minutes were a blur for Ginny. Afterwards, she couldn't remember experiencing the time at all, she could only remember remembering it once it had passed. Once things had calmed down, the pub was in shambles, empty and deserted, and Ginny tried to reorient herself with her surroundings...

She was on the floor, half under a tablecloth that had fallen from somewhere. Harry was beside her, his wand drawn and watching the door—Ron was next to him, and Hermione next to Ron. They were waiting for Ginny to stand again—

"What happened?" she said, then, but as soon as she was standing she felt her hand grabbed from beside her and she was being pulled along with the other three, out the door of the pub—

There were flashes everywhere, and Ginny was dizzy again. She tried to think while her feet pounded the pavement, but it was difficult... she knew that Harry had her arm, and was pulling her, and they were chasing... who were they chasing?

Time disappeared again for Ginny. The next she knew she was in the middle of High Street, far along the road, where it joined with another street. There was Lestrange, in the middle of the crossing, and—and she had Luna!

Lestrange was holding Luna tightly by the arm, and her other arm held her wand, pointed at Harry—he was facing her as well. Ginny tried to figure out what was going on—

"COME, POTTER! YOU FOR THE GIRL!"

"What?" said Ginny aloud. "What's going on?"

"LET HER GO!" Harry called back to Lestrange.

"COME WITH US AND SHE'LL BE NICE_ AND SAFE." Even when yelling, Lestrange's voice was nothing but a taunt._

_"LET HER GO!"_

_"COME AND GET HER!"_

_Ginny felt sort of unbalanced. She wanted to lay down on the ground and just clear out her mind, sort things out... nothing made sense to her. Everything was a jumble._

_"WE DON'T WANT ANY TROUBLE, DO WE? FINE—WE'LL DO IT THE HARD WAY!"_

_And then Ginny couldn't see—a terrible fog had burst forth from Lestrange's wand, and everything was grey... she couldn't see... she couldn't see..._

_A hand grabbed her arm again, Harry's hand, and they started to run..._

_——_

Luna had gotten very bored of sitting on the floor. It really wasn't at all comfortable, and it was getting more and more difficult to pretend that the hard floorboards were really the frozen ground outside. She wished she could move.

She glanced at her three captors, and wished at the very least that she could develop a bit of Stockholm Syndrome, so at least she could enjoy herself. But no... this was just dreadful.

One of the Death Eaters—not Lestrange, but one of the two men—noticed that Luna was watching them, and snarled at her. When she didn't react, he looked a bit confused, and then more than a little uncomfortable under her gaze.

Luna was very tired of all this, and she wished that she knew _why _she was there in the first place. Why had they kidnapped _her_, of all people...? What good could she do them...? And why must her head be so itchy when she was unable to scratch it...?

She wished that someone would hurry up and rescue her... but then she remembered the fog that Lestrange had cast upon the village, and Luna reckoned it would be very difficult for the others to find them. If only she could send some sort of signal to them...

Luna looked around the room for something to use, but then stopped herself—even if she _did _find something, she wouldn't be able to do anything with it, because she was so tightly tied up. Then she had an idea.

The Death Eaters were all very anxious-looking, and all of them were watching the door with their hands resting on their wands, as though waiting for an intruder. None of them were paying attention to Luna anymore, and while she was so left alone, she began to concentrate.

Luna thought as hard as she could about the itch on the top of her head, that little tingly feeling that she so very much wanted to scratch. She focused all of her brainpower upon that thought, the thought of scratching that itch, and she began to _feel_ the energy pool within herself, gaining in pressure as she continued to concentrate... then she ignored the building energy to devote that part of her brain as well.

Finally, and Luna was quite relieved that it had worked, a vast array of sparks shot straight out of her ears from the pressure, and while none of the sparks managed to successfully eliminate the itch, they did manage to fly off high into the air, out past the worn and crack-filled ceiling and into the sky above. If Luna could move her mouth, she would have grinned broadly.

The Death Eaters were enraged, and Luna was quite sure that one of them was going to curse her terribly, but Lestrange held up a hand to stop him—_Silence_, she said soundlessly. _Be prepared._

The three Death Eaters were all standing now, and they tucked themselves in on either side of the doorway, so that they were invisible from the hall outside. Their wands were drawn, ready to fire upon anyone who attempted entrance.

Luna thought to herself, _Well, at least something's happening now._

——

"Did you see that? Did you see those sparks?"

Neville was pointing out excitedly over the fog, having sprung up a moment before.

"Yeah, I did," said Harry, standing as well. "Was that the—"

"—Shrieking Shack? I think so."

"Let's go," said Ginny then, abruptly leaping from her reverie. "Let's go."

They went, and it was a painfully long way around the village. Ginny had to consciously keep herself from running, and Harry and Neville struggled somewhat to keep up with her. When they were about a hundred yards off the Shrieking Shack, Ginny noticed that her hand was sweaty on the surface of her wand, so she wiped it.

"Slow down, Ginny," said Harry. "We've got to be careful."

They walked close to the fog, so as to remain as hidden as possible. They were fifty yards away from the Shack now... forty...

Another step closer, and Ginny suddenly felt herself being toppled to the ground—the wind was nearly knocked out of her with the unexpectedness of it, and she lost her grip on her wand—

"Ginny! Harry! Neville!" said her tackler then, and Ginny was amazed to hear Ron's voice. "You're OK—"

"Get off me, or I won't be for long—"

"Oh, sorry Gin—"

"Oh, we were so worried..." said Hermione then, and Ginny finally got back to her feet and could look at the two of them, Ron and Hermione—they were dreadfully out of breath, as though they had just run throughout the entire length of the fog—

"We nearly got killed," said Ron fervently. "There were Death Eaters in there, in the fog, and we didn't see them till it was nearly too late—"

"Wait, wait, what happened?"

Hermione started from the beginning: "After we got separated—I tripped on somebody on the ground, by the way, I think, it was a body—there were Death Eaters in there... and they... well, it was a close thing."

"Hermione fought 'em off, though, really quick hexes," said Ron. He grinned slightly. "That was brilliant, you've got to teach us that, Hermione—"

"I think I sort of understand what the Death Eaters are doing now," said Hermione. "They _don't _want us to find them at all. That's why they conjured the fog—they want to find _us_, to catch us off guard and pick us off. I don't think there are too many of them here, maybe they're worried about a confrontation..."

"Why would they be worried about fighting us?" Harry said. "They're _Death Eaters_—"

"And you're _you_, Harry, and we're _us,_ and they haven't had much luck against any of us in the past, have they?"

There was a silence for a few moments, and then Hermione seemed to remember something:

"Did you three see those sparks a few minutes ago? Ron didn't see them, he thinks I imagined them—"

"Yeah, we saw them," said Ginny. "That's where we're going, the Shrieking Shack, that's where the sparks were—"

"That's where they have Luna?"

"Yeah," said Ginny. "We've got to hurry—"

"No, we don't," said Hermione hurriedly. "They're not going to do anything to her if they haven't already—and they obviously haven't already, since she must have sent off the sparks. We have to be careful, and take our time—there are probably more of them in there, in the fog, and they might spot us out here if they're close. And more than anything, we _have to stay together._"

"Whatever," said Ginny. "But let's go."

——

When Ginny could see again, she was on the floor—she didn't know how long she'd been there. They were in Honeydukes, now; Harry, Ron, Hermione, and her, Ginny. She didn't know how they'd gotten there, but they had, and that was what mattered. It must have been the nearest building...

"What happened?"

The words came out of her mouth before she meant to say them. Harry helped her up and into a chair before speaking. She wondered where Ron and Hermione were.

The Death Eaters had been waiting, Harry told her—they hadn't meant to start a fight, but only to watch, as though they were waiting for something. They'd taken Luna in the initial assault on the Three Broomsticks—Harry hesitated a moment before adding:

"They didn't mean to take Luna... they meant to take you."

Ginny blinked. "Me?" she said. "Why me? Wouldn't they want to take you_?"_

_Harry was silent a minute. He looked as though he were blaming himself for the whole thing... if only he hadn't mentioned the voices, then none of this would have happened... But Ginny knew that it wasn't his fault at all—if they'd wanted to go after _her, _then it was _her _fault, obviously._

Then_: "Hermione thinks they wanted you as bait, so I'd go after them."_

_"But why not just take you?" she said, and it did seem odd now that she said it aloud: why _hadn't _they just taken Harry...?_

_Harry shrugged. "I dunno."_

_They were silent a moment or two, and Ginny found herself going over what he'd told her in her mind, letting everything sink in so that she could make sense of everything that had happened..._

_Then Ginny said: "Where _is_ Hermione?"_

_"Downstairs. She and Ron are working on getting through the passageway up to Hogwarts... you knew about that, right? The passage?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"Well, it's blocked somehow, and they're trying to get through, but they haven't done it so far, as far as I know."_

_Ginny was starting to feel more like herself now, less confused and more... Ginnyish. Things were starting to make sense..._

_"Unless they just left without you," she said with a sort of wry smile. "Who needs Harry Potter anyway?" Harry returned the slight smile hesitantly. He still looked to be blaming himself. It wasn't his fault._

_"So what do we do while we wait?" Ginny asked for the sake of saying something._

_"I guess we just... wait, while we wait. There's nothing much to do. We've got to keep watch up here, just in case..."_

_"I'll look out the window, then," said Ginny. "Not that I can see much in the fog... hey, you don't have your invisibility cloak, do you? Maybe we could just hang it in front of the fog and we could see through it..."_

_"No such luck," said Harry._

_Ginny moved a chair from behind the counter over to the window and took her position like a prison guard, watching for any sign of movement._

_Harry began to pace._

_——_

After the painfully long walk to where Ginny, Harry, and Neville had met up with Ron and Hermione, the remaining space between the students and the Shrieking Shack seemed to vanish in an instant. Ginny reckoned it was because she was growing more and more anxious, wondering just what they'd do when they got there... she began dreading it, so it came all the faster.

The Shrieking Shack, being on the edge of town as it was, fell directly upon the line that divided the world into fog and not-fog. The front door and about half of the house was covered in the smokiness, while the rear was perfectly clear of it. It struck Ginny suddenly that the fog seemed to be made of the same substance as ghosts—not really literally, no, but... yes, it struck her that if a ghost had decided to step into the fog, no one would notice. That didn't make sense, but it popped into her head all the same.

It was more the type of thing that Luna would say.

Ginny swallowed, and turned round to the others, suddenly feeling that she was in charge of them, that she was the leader of the rescue. She mouthed to them silently, _I'm going in first—watch my back._

Swallowing once again, Ginny put her left hand on the wall of the Shrieking Shack and stepped into the fog. She walked along the edge of the house and tried not to think about not being able to see anything... she held her wand aloft in the other hand, of course, ready to attack anything that moved. With both arms outstretched like that, she felt like she was walking on a wire in a Muggle circus... and while both her feet were firmly on the ground, she felt as though she were about to fall at any moment.

Step, step, step—

Suddenly her hand met air, so she knew that she had reached the corner of the Shack... she turned, carefully, and could suddenly feel Harry's presence _directly _behind her, and she knew it was him because it radiated Harryness, and it was almost as though he had a hand on her shoulder, steadying her...

Step, step, step...

She felt the edge of the front door meet the tips of her fingers then, and she stopped short—would there be a Death Eater standing guard in the doorway...? Probably... she stood there a moment, took a deep breath, and turned quick as a flash round to face the open doorway—

And it _wasn't _open; she wondered why she'd thought it would be. The door was closed and of course there was no one standing on the front step.

Hesitantly, Ginny put her left hand on the doorknob, and turned... it was unlocked. Without preamble, she threw the door open and pointed her wand inside—

No one, again. The front room was empty as the fog outside. She let out a breath, but in a moment the door she had flung open crashed into the wall behind, resonating with a loud _bang_.

"Damn it," she muttered, and she quickly moved inside the building to the fog-free front room, clearing the doorway for the others to do the same behind her... She kept her wand focused on the stairwell while they did so, for surely they must be upstairs, if Luna had shot the sparks into the sky...

Ron was the last one inside, and he closed the door carefully behind him—it was useless, really, since they had to have known they were there, what with the ruckus Ginny had caused... she wondered why they hadn't come down yet to attack.

Then there was a whisper in her ear, Harry's voice: "Maybe they think it's one of them that slammed it."

Ginny doubted it somewhat, but clung to the hope and stepped towards the stairs, leading the way once again...

Before she could reach them, however, she felt someone catch the back of her jumper—it was Hermione, and she was shaking her head fervently. She pointed at the stairs, and Ginny noticed how rickety-looking they were... sure to creak terribly, that was what Hermione was saying.

"_Silencio_," murmured Hermione near-silently, and then she let go of Ginny's jumper and let her proceed.

The stairs felt odd, as though they were magically cushioned—Ginny could _feel _that they should have creaked, and yet each step was as silent as the one before it.

When her feet had reached about two thirds of the way up, her head could see over the top step, and across the hall there was a door, which was open, and in that door there was—

——

Luna saw Ginny as soon as the brightness of her hair had peeked out across the hallway, in the stairwell. She knew that the Death Eaters could not see Ginny, because they were grouped around the door and waiting for someone to step inside, so they could attack—

Luna's eyes caught Ginny's as soon as Ginny's were visible, and then Luna turned her eyeballs to the right and to the left very exaggeratedly, to warn her of the Death Eaters' positions. Ginny paused a moment, and then nodded—she was at the top of the steps now, and Harry was right behind her, Hermione Granger behind him, and then Neville and Ronald...

Ginny disappeared from Luna's sight then, and Luna knew she had put herself in the same position as the Death Eaters, on the opposite side of the wall—the others quickly followed suit. Luna looked at the Death Eaters now, and they must have heard something because they looked ready to spring more than they had before...

Luna wondered if Ginny had any idea what she was doing—Luna hoped she didn't, because that would be more fun.

There was perhaps a full minute during which the opposing sides simply stood there, with their backs to each other and the wall in the middle. Then, Ginny appeared again, and she put her finger to her mouth to make sure Luna didn't speak—as though she were able—and stood right opposite Luna, about halfway between the doorway and the stairs. Ginny raised her wand—

Luna glanced at the Death Eaters once more to see if they were expecting anything, and they didn't seem to be.

—and pointed it at Luna.

"_Accio Luna!_"

The moment the spell left Ginny's lips, two things happened—one, Luna felt herself flying which was rather pleasant, but also short-lived—and two, the Death Eaters leapt out from their hiding spots to attack Ginny.

They didn't have a chance, however, for as soon as Luna had sped past the doorway, the other students plunged into the fray from _their _hiding spots, blocking the way of the Death Eaters and throwing hexes at them. Ginny caught Luna unexpectedly deftly and essentially threw them both to the floor, off to the side of the hall and out of the way.

Neither Luna nor Ginny could see anything for the next few minutes, for their heads were tucked closely to the floor, but they heard absolute chaos—the spells of seven people being fired off again and again, and then blocked, and fired, and blocked, all from such a very close range... All Luna could hear was "_Protegavadexpellify!_" again and again, and that wasn't a real spell.

With a final, discernable "_Stupefy!_" and a _crack, _the chaos departed, and there was a collective sigh of relief. They had managed to stun both of the men, and finally Lestrange had Disapparated.

Luna stood then, helping Ginny up with her because Ginny's arms probably hurt from catching Luna, and she brushed herself off—the dust was terrible in this place. It was only when she managed to get a particularly hard to reach patch of it that Luna realised she could move again, which was a pleasant discovery.

"Is everybody all right?" said Ginny. "Luna, you're all right?"

"I'm splendid," said Luna, stretching.

"Good."

Harry spoke then: "We should get Dumbledore... he can take these two." He gestured to the two unconscious Death Eaters."

"Yes," said Hermione. "Ron and I will do that..."

The words sort of faded into the background for Luna, because her attention was elsewhere:

"Look!"

Luna pointed to a glassless window which was not fully boarded up—the other heads in the room turned to it, and they all saw what she was pointing at.

"The fog's gone," said Ron. He turned to Harry: "See, I bet it _was _because Lestrange was a vampire; she's gone and taken it with her to protect her from the sun."

"There's not much use for that," said Ginny, and she walked over to the window. "The sun's setting."

Luna stood beside her. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah," said Ginny, and then: "Red-orange?"

Luna smiled. "Orange-red."

——

A long time passed, and a long time had yet to do so. Ginny walked slowly now, savouring the autumnal foliage around her as she made her way to the edge of Hogsmeade.

She couldn't quite remember how long it had been since the first time they'd come here, to their spot on the edge of the village... she knew it was a year before the second time, but after that the weeks and the months and the years sort of blurred into each other, so that Ginny could scarcely recall any individual memories of the nights at all. In fact, those times that, for some reason, they could _not _make it, those were the ones that stuck in her mind because they were so very much the exception.

When Ginny reached the spot where the trees twined together, Luna was already laying there, her head slightly propped on a pillow of non-crinkly leaves—that was the only thing they were good for, anyway.

"Hello, Ginny," she said without looking away from the sky.

"Hey, Luna," Ginny said, gathering up her own pillow with her foot. "You're early."

"I arrived precisely when I meant to," said Luna. "If I come too late, I don't have a chance to watch the clouds before the sun goes down."

Ginny smiled. "You know, soon we're just going to be laying out here the whole day long, if you think like that. Remember when we just used to come out to watch the stars? Then it was the sunset, too—now the clouds, is it? What's going to be next, the sunrise?"

"No, because I don't have any coffee. I can't watch the sunrise without coffee, you know that."

"Of course not," said Ginny, and now she laid down beside her friend—it struck her how much longer it took her to do that than it used to. "However might I suggest such a treason?"

Luna smirked. "Quiet, Mrs-I-Can't-Apparate-On-An-Empty-Stomach."

"Look who's talking, Mrs-I'll-Just-Take-It-To-Go-Because-I-Can't-Apparate-_After-_Eating."

"Well at least that makes _sense_."

"No it doesn't."

"Of course it does."

"This can go on forever, you know that?"

"Shh, there's the first one."

There had been a time when Luna had to point at the star she meant, the first one to appear in the sky... but now both of them knew this view so well that they always knew which star the other was referring to, and they'd long-since known which ones usually appeared first.

They were silent for a long time after that, watching the different stars as they became visible to the earth, watching as the sky grew slowly and slowly darker... and then Luna spoke, and she sounded very sleepy.

"I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't do this... who doesn't look at the stars. They must feel so very lonely, don't you think? But us, you and I, Ginny..." She yawned, then: "We–w... we have a billion friends every week, don't we?"

"I suppose so."

Luna nodded then, and Ginny somehow could tell even though she wasn't looking. Luna just nodded, and nodded, and nodded to herself, and then she murmured something to herself, and nodded off. Ginny smiled to herself once again... once upon a time, they'd been able to stay up and watch the stars the whole night long... but that was a long time ago. Now they were lucky just to see the night fall.

Oh yes, they were lucky.

_

Finis

_


End file.
